CAPUTO: This is a special season for Michigan -- win or lose

A few minutes remaining, trailing by double digits, Michigan’s season was about to end short of special.

Kansas was the better team, it appeared, and proving it emphatically during a methodical Sweet 16 destruction of the Wolverines in Dallas.

The subsequent Michigan rally was epic, even during an event, the NCAA tournament, which often plays out more like a feel-good Disney movie than an iconic sporting event.

Trey Burke’s shot to send the game into overtime will be replayed forever.

The Wolverines could get blown out by 40 points in the Final Four by Syracuse Saturday, and this will be considered a special season.

The Final Four is the one event in which the biggest share of the credit is given for getting there. It’s not like the Super Bowl, in which the losing team is often subjected to scorn, and seemingly doomed for future failure.

The point is especially true for Michigan, which had its salad days in basketball ripped out by the roots in the aftermath of scandal.

It’s been two decades since Chris Webber’s awkward trip down the floor ended with the timeout Michigan did not have in the NCAA Championship game vs. North Carolina.

The replay, long before hi-def TV, looks like ancient history - perhaps because it is.

Somehow overlooked in the legacy of Fab 5, is Michigan’s only men’s basketball NCAA championship 24 years ago. It has largely been forgotten. That team, like this one, had a 12-6 Big Ten mark and was under heat entering the NCAA tournament. Athletic director Bo Schembechler dismissed coach Bill Frieder for taking the Arizona State job and appointed Steve Fisher interim coach.

It was a No.3 seed - hardly a trendy pick entering the tournament.

It wasn’t long ago a bid to the NCAA tournament was a frustrating quest for Michigan. It overwhelmed Tommy Amaker, an excellent coach, who has since won an NCAA tournament game at Harvard.

The Wolverines will be playing with house money in Atlanta. Whatever they accomplish from this point on will be whipped cream and a cherry atop the sundae.

Memories are erased during the NCAA tournament.

Indiana won the Big Ten regular season title outright with a thrilling road victory over Michigan at the Crisler Center, but it has been trumped by a Sweet 16 loss.

Michigan lost six of its last 12 games entering the NCAA tournament. Few care at this point. Indiana, undoubtedly, would trade its Big Ten title for Michigan’s sputtering finish to the regular season and lackluster performance in the Big Ten Tournament, for a spot in the Final Four.

The Wolverines will be facing a similar story Saturday in the national semifinal. Syracuse was also a No.4 seed. Syracuse lost seven of its last 12 regular season Big East games. The Orange were 18-1, ranked third nationally and unbeaten in the Big East when the slide began and they dropped to a four-seed for the NCAAs. Michigan was No.1 and 16-0 before its slide.

Syracuse won at Louisville, the prohibitive favorite to emerge from the Final Four as national championship, this season, although losing the two big showdowns later with the Cardinals.

Michigan’s talent is extraordinary. The freshmen trio of Mitch McGary, Glenn Robinson III and Nik Stauskas is now essentially sophomores. All three had down points this season, but have grown and become better because of it.

You’d think Trey Burke, the Wolverines’ magnificent point guard, would present this huge “X” factor, but guard Michael Carter-Williams scorched Indiana out of this tournament. He has height. Syracuse is long and athletic and balanced. This is not a plodding team that merely runs venerable coach Jim Boeheim’s old-school 2-3 zone defense so well nobody can figure it out.

Those who look at the Michigan-Syracuse matchup beforehand, and come to a definitive conclusion about the outcome, see something I don’t. I view it as the consummate pick ‘em game.

What is certain is the Wolverines’ long trip back from college basketball oblivion is complete.

A national championship would only accentuate the point.

Pat Caputo is a senior sports reporter and a columnist for Journal Register Newspapers. Contact him at pat.caputo@oakpress.com and read his blog at theoaklandpress.com. You can follow him on Twitter @patcaputo98